NEWARK, N.J.—Playing against Russell Wilson poses some significant challenges for any NFL team.

The Seattle Seahawks quarterback, who has led his team to the Super Bowl in only his second season, possesses a rare combination of raw speed, a cannon arm and the sort of supernatural cool ordinarily found only in seasoned veterans.

But for the Denver Broncos, Sunday's Super Bowl XLVIII matchup with Wilson represents a particularly tall order. During practice this week, the task of imitating the shortest quarterback in the NFL has fallen to Broncos backup signal-caller Brock Osweiler—the tallest offensive player in pro football.

"No question: It's a big challenge," said Osweiler, whose listed height of 6-feet-8 is nine inches taller than Wilson's official listed height of 5-feet-11. "On the scout team, my job is to replicate the opposing quarterback as best I can, but there's only so much you can do. It's not like I can just walk around on my knees."

In a league long infatuated with size, strength and physical stature, the biggest problem associated with short quarterbacks was long thought to be how they would manage to throw the ball over the gigantic galoots in front of them.

But as Wilson has calmly navigated his way through the gigantic world of the NFL, posting a 24-8 career record and three playoff victories in his first two seasons, his diminutive size is starting to emerge as a significant hurdle for opposing teams, who rarely have a passer of similar proportions to simulate the Seattle quarterback in practice.

"It's not easy to find someone like him," said Tarvaris Jackson, the Seahawks backup quarterback. "Even if they do find someone slightly smaller, I guarantee you he won't be able to move like Russell. In that respect, it is a little advantage, because [opposing teams] aren't getting the best looks in practice."

The Broncos say that while Osweiler will never be mistaken for Wilson on the practice field, he has done a passable job as the Seattle quarterback while leading the scout team. Linebacker Brandon Marshall said that finding a physical match for an opposing quarterback is less important than having someone capable of replicating his timing and progressions.

"He does a good job of putting what we see on film out there on the practice field," Marshall said of Osweiler. "There are no issues with that."

But the Seahawks aren't so sure. Seattle linebacker Bobby Wagner said it is helpful to practice against a quarterback of similar size because it gets defenders used to the release point and the trajectory of that quarterback's passes.

In the case of Wilson, whose ability to locate throwing lanes is the key to Seattle's passing attack, the opportunity to face a quarterback of similarly short stature in team drills would allow defensive linemen to practice batting down passes.

Then there is Wilson's speed. With a 40-yard dash timed at a sluggish 4.9 seconds, Osweiler isn't ideally equipped to emulate Wilson's shiftiness and acceleration in practice sessions.

But as much as Wilson and Osweiler are physical opposites, the Broncos aren't the only team that has had to make do with a less-than-ideal look from their scout-team quarterback.

"I've got to be Peyton this week, so that's a lot different too," Jackson said of his own attempt at imitating Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning in practice. "Our guys have been giving me a little grief about it, saying 'Where's your Omaha?' and [asking] why I'm not shouting all this stuff [before the snap]. But you just have to do the best you can. At the end of the day, you can only be yourself."